The Emperor made the Grand Duke and Duchess of Lusenford wait in the anteroom for about an hour before summoning them to the audience chamber. Considering the Emperor’s usual behavior, this was actually quite civil of him.
During that hour, Peon pretended not to notice Kaela’s frequent comments, though he wasn’t particularly pleased with having to respond kindly to her while she rested.
He already had experience from their wedding time in Craine of pretending not to see, not to hear, and even saying things he didn’t mean. So he planned to endure this time as well.
After all, his wife standing beside him with her arm linked in his had asked him to be patient. And he was a husband who faithfully did as his wife asked.
“We come before the eternal sun of the Empire. May you live a thousand years.”
“May you live a thousand years, Your Imperial Majesty.”
The Grand Duke and Duchess of Lusenford maintained proper etiquette before the Emperor, who wouldn’t even look their way.
“Why did you young folks come so early? Couldn’t you have come later today like usual?”
The Emperor, whom they hadn’t seen for months, seemed to have become an even more irritable old man.
“We apologize, Your Majesty. I miscalculated the dates – we should have come earlier.”
Peon spoke before his wife could. Whatever else, he didn’t want to let his wife be the first to apologize.
“Then you might as well not have come at all.”
His response was deliberately twisted. Having gotten irritated, he was essentially saying ‘Try to appease me with flattery.’
“We apologize, Your Majesty. Due to my poor health, we had to travel slowly.”
“Nonsense! The Empress and I are in far worse health – how bad could it be for young people like you!”
Should I kill him?
Peon considered this very coldly and rationally. He knew he would have to keep enduring the Emperor and contemplating whether to kill him or not. Rather than repeating this nauseating routine, wouldn’t it be cleaner to just kill him and be done with it?
The audience chamber would instantly be stained with blood. The Emperor, his ankles severed and knees crushed, would roll as he falls, and with his fall, the imperial throne would completely shatter. The Emperor would be dragged north and imprisoned in the darkest dungeon to endure all manner of torture. Even Beatrice was nothing compared to this.
Peon would quietly take his still-unconscious mother’s body to the evil dragon’s domain. His father, the dragon, would know how to restore his mother’s lost consciousness.
By then, Peon’s tasks would be complete. The imperial citizens would rage and brand Lusenford as traitors.
–”A dragon! A dragon wearing human skin!”
–”Kill him!”
His wife’s homeland, Ostein, would likewise be labeled as traitors. Though the Crown Prince would hastily inherit full authority and move to suppress the traitors, he naturally couldn’t defeat Peon.
Much blood would flow, and in both Ostein and Lusenford, some would rebel against the fact that their Grand Duke was a dragon, while others would be too shocked to know what to do.
Peon would silently protect only Kaela. And her equally shocked father as well.
Since the Crown Prince couldn’t fulfill his role, people would look to the Duke of Ostein, the only remaining imperial bloodline, as the next Emperor. After all, he could become Emperor with a dragon’s backing.
However, amid the chaos, some nobles would declare their own power and establish their own countries. The Empire would thus fragment into pieces, with multiple kings emerging, and both Ostein and Lusenford would be engulfed in flames. Peon could easily protect these two territories. He could also immediately restore public order.
But all this chaos would be too much for Kaela. She would face all sorts of insults that would shock her.
–”Filthy woman who spread her legs for a dragon!”
He could easily handle enemies flooding into Ostein just by standing on the balcony of the Duke’s residence, without even needing to go into battle.
–”Woman who sold out her country!”
The criticism directed at him wouldn’t bother him at all. But Kaela, the noble Princess of Ostein, would collapse under the weight of the accusations she’d hear for being associated with him.
Shadows would occasionally cross her face. Having heard undeserved insults, seeing close ones turn their backs, and watching her beloved Ostein split apart, she would live numbly in the life Peon had held onto for her.
She would not be happy.
Peon, who had been quietly peering into the future while the Emperor barked on, immediately turned his attention to the stirring presence beside him.
“Ah…!”
With a thud, Kaela collapsed onto the audience chamber floor. Peon’s contemplation broke off, and the grumbling Emperor finally turned to look their way.
“My Lady.”
The way she fell after standing perfectly fine was quite unnatural. Kaela knew this too. Fortunately, the Emperor only saw her after she had already fallen and braced herself against the floor, so he didn’t notice how unnatural it was.
“Are you alright?”
“What’s wrong with you?”
The Emperor asked, hands clasped behind his back.
“I felt dizzy for a moment… I apologize, Your Majesty.”
Kaela, head bowed, looked into Peon’s eyes as he helped her up. The cold murderous intent that had clouded his purple eyes had completely disappeared, replaced with concern for her.
“Are you very dizzy?”
“I’m fine.”
He helped her up with a slight smile. He had noticed. Her clumsy acting hadn’t fooled Peon. But at least she had stopped her husband from whatever he was planning to do to the Emperor.
It was fortunate that he hadn’t ended up crushing the entire imperial family. Later, she would have to tell him to stop doing such heart-racing things, or at least ask him to be more patient. Though whether he would listen was another matter.
“Sit down, sit down. Kaela, what’s wrong with your face?”
The Emperor, finally noticing Kaela’s face, hurriedly gestured for her to sit and came closer.
“Why does the child’s face look so gaunt?”
“It’s the aftereffects of the previous incident and the weather in Lusenford. We apologize, Your Majesty.”
Peon played the role of the guilty husband very smoothly as he addressed the Emperor.
“Even so, how did she get so thin? Kaela, are you eating properly?”
“I’m trying my best to.”
“Well, since you got sick from food, I suppose eating would be difficult. But you still need to eat well. You must eat well.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Is Lusenford difficult?”
The Emperor treated Kaela very warmly, as if he had never been irritable. Seeing Kaela’s pale, gaunt face made him feel sorry.
“Bring some tea and refreshments. You need to eat something.”
“I’m much better now, Your Majesty. I should adapt well. I’ll get better.”
Kaela, who was good at saying things she didn’t mean, knew the social world too well. She spoke easily, hiding her indifference and lethargy.
For his wife’s sake, Peon had no choice but to take revenge in a human way. He would have to crush the Emperor using every legitimate justification. Though troublesome and bothersome, he had no choice. He had seen the future. He had seen a future where Kaela would be deeply unhappy.
“Isn’t it hard dealing with Hyperion’s coldness?”
“He’s actually very kind and caring.”
“Him?”
The Emperor looked at Peon as if hearing this for the first time. Indeed, the sight of him carrying and seating his wife was unusual.
“Yes. He’s helped me the most in adapting, staying by my side.”
“Well, isn’t that what he’s supposed to do?”
Peon just smiled without answering.
“Well… to think I’d live to see you receive such words from your wife.”
The Emperor examined the couple he had matched while the servant came to set down tea and refreshments.
“The Empress would have loved to see this.”
“How is Her Majesty’s condition, Your Majesty?”
“The same.”
That was all. There was nothing more to say. No physician could restore the Empress’s consciousness. Though the Emperor couldn’t say it aloud, they were at the point where they might need to try sorcery.
“Your face looks more troubled than when we last saw you.”
Peon spoke politely while subtly pushing a plate of refreshments toward Kaela.
“What joy could I have when the Empress has been bedridden for months?”
One might think they had been a loving couple. But it was all nonsense from an Emperor who had kidnapped another’s bride to marry her, had a string of illegitimate children, and even now had entrusted his engagement ceremony to his mistress.
Kaela and Peon had to listen to his entirely self-pitying words about how much he was suffering, how worried and troubled he was.
“There’s no pleasure, none at all. Everything goes on as usual, and just when I think of stepping down, I can’t stand the sight of what the Crown Prince is doing.”
The Emperor openly complained about his son.
“Kaela, you’re performing your role as Grand Duchess so maturely, but what’s wrong with that fool? Aren’t you two the same age?”
“Still, Your Majesty, the Crown Prince’s position of overseeing the entire empire is quite different from that of a Grand Duchess.”
“I’m talking about attitude, attitude. Already there’s so much talk about this engagement ceremony…”
The Emperor couldn’t have been unaware of the rumors spreading from Craine beyond its walls to the surrounding areas. Even with reduced magical device functionality, the Emperor had his agents bringing him rumors.
“We need someone to maintain order. That’s why I called you early.”
“What would we know?”
“Adeo will come too. The three of you need to figure something out again. It’s giving me a headache. We can’t embarrass ourselves in front of Keruzhan, can we?”
The Emperor sighed heavily.
“If the Empress were here, it wouldn’t be such a mess. I can’t ask Gregory to prepare his own engagement ceremony, and it’s not proper for me to step in for my son’s engagement. Dorothea knows nothing. She just creates problems and doesn’t know what to do.”
He complained about having no one to rely on.
“You two and Adeo are all I can trust. Hyperion, you’ve grown into such a reliable man. This time too, you prevented those barbaric foreigners from invading without major losses. Well done.”
“I merely did my best with the task entrusted to me.”
Peon bowed his head respectfully, then glanced at Kaela as he raised it. He somehow seemed to have an expression saying “I did well, didn’t I?”
“Yes, that’s how it should be.”
The Emperor clicked his tongue and shook his head. While he held his head and sighed for a moment, a light silence fell over the audience chamber.
Peon didn’t care whether the Emperor was suffering or not, and while Kaela could tell the Emperor had been greatly troubled for months, she couldn’t sympathize with his suffering.
“When there’s work to be done, one should just do it, but why is there so much talk? Am I getting old? Where have all the good virtues of modesty and silence gone? Everyone’s making a fuss and praising themselves – I don’t understand how the world works these days.”
So the Grand Duke and Duchess of Lusenford merely listened halfheartedly to the stubborn Emperor’s long speech. It was just his spite at others daring to act proud when he should be the most prestigious. Kaela managed not to doze off, and Peon subtly refused during the Emperor’s pauses in speech.
“If I could be of help to Your Majesty in this important matter, I would do anything, but given my wife’s health condition, I’m worried I might become a burden to Your Majesty instead. As you can see, she gets dizzy even when just sitting still.”
Kaela, who hadn’t even dreamed of refusing the mounting responsibilities, was surprised by Peon’s words but made an effort to maintain her composure. She had to be especially careful in front of the Emperor.
“Is there no way at all?”
The Emperor, seemingly reluctant to let go of Kaela, couldn’t easily give up.
“I will focus on recovering my health for now.”
“That’s true. One needs to be healthy to work. Still, try to come by every few days. There’s no one to manage the household affairs, it’s a mess, an absolute mess.”
“I’m very grateful that Your Majesty trusts me with this task. However, wouldn’t the Marchioness of Schroz, who was originally in charge of the engagement ceremony, be upset?”
“Dorothea? Not at all. She should be grateful to have someone as thoughtful as you who considers others’ feelings. Don’t worry about that! I’ll make sure to tell her firmly.”
With the Emperor insisting this much, Kaela could neither refuse nor would it be right to do so.
“Peon, you also dealt with Prince Elkanan when the Keruzhan delegation came last time. The Crown Prince is still inexperienced. He’s just a novice in front of that snake-like Elkanan. Keep an eye on him. You’re a member of our imperial family too.”
In the end, the couple was each assigned important responsibilities. If the Emperor hadn’t slaughtered his siblings when he ascended to the throne, he wouldn’t have had to lament about having no one to rely on in his old age. The downsized imperial family felt empty with so few people. Many buildings in the royal palace were being maintained without occupants.
“While we should be presenting gifts to Your Majesty, you’re entrusting us with important duties instead. We are honored. Please accept our gift as well. We’ve brought something from Lusenford.”
Kaela found Peon unfamiliar, as he acted perfectly with extremely smooth rhetoric and no unnecessary gestures at her single glance. The Emperor should have thought so too, but he seemed too delighted to notice Peon’s changed demeanor, his smile reaching his ears.
“Oh, what have you brought again? No need, no need.”
Though he waved his hand in mock modesty, the Emperor was already smiling with pleasure.
“No, Your Majesty. Let them bring it in.”
A servant bowed and went outside, returning with a gift box that had passed security procedures.
“Please open it, Your Majesty. This is a gift prepared for Your Majesty from Lusenford.”
Kaela tried hard to remember what it was but gave up. She thought Peon had told her about it, but she hadn’t paid any attention, so she couldn’t remember. Most of his words to her had scattered meaninglessly.
“Really now, I know how difficult things are in that cold place, why do you keep sending things like this?”
Despite his words, his hands moved quickly to open it. When the Emperor opened the box, his already wide smile grew even broader.
hoping to see peon’s revenge!!